


Day Seven

by orange_8_hands



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Canon Compliant, Episode: s05e04 The End, Episode: s07e13 The Slice Girls, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, Psychological Torture, Purgatory, Unhappy Ending, Violence, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:53:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1799500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_8_hands/pseuds/orange_8_hands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you know what your father did to me?"   [snapshots of other lives]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day Seven

**Author's Note:**

> tw: violence, (character) death(s), implied: sexual assault, medical experiments, consent issues, torture

  
"Emma," he says, voice too sharp.

"Sorry," she murmurs. In her hand are the pieces and she builds it back up, creates her own protection for when she is left alone, working fast against the clock she knows is ticking down in his head. She is seven but she knows the weight of her gun, the way her fingers should close around it, the slide of bullets popping in, and in this at least there is no disappointment, just the curl of his mouth as she finishes in time.   

"Repeat the rules," Dean says, checking over his own supplies. 

"Don't go anywhere, don't make noise, hide if someone comes knocking, call Ricky if you're late, eat my peas for dinner."

"Ok," Dean says, and zips up his bag. He squeezes the back of her neck as he passes her, waits on the other side of the door for her to bolt the locks and maneuver a chair to help block the way. She knocks twice on the door, and he knocks back once, then heads out to the car.

Later, she eats her peas and makes yucky faces at the TV and tries not to think about Dean being late.

 

~

"Hey, _hey listen_ , I'm starting you off slow."

~

 

"It is a bajillion degrees out, Dad," Amy tells the table, her forehead pressed to it and probably leaving sweat behind on the green tablecloth they were using. 

"A bajillion, Mr. Chang," Dee repeats, which sounds like agreement if you paid zero attention to her tone. "A bajillion majillion trijillion."

"That's a lot of bajillions," Mr. Chang says, and he doesn't sound annoyed like Dad would or tired like Mom would, because Mr. Chang was actually the Coolest Parent in Their Girl Scout Troop If You Didn't Include The Time Mrs. Lopez Let Them Eat Ice Cream Before Dinner, as decided at the sleepover last month.

Amy just groans into the table and Mr. Chang lets her stay that way until someone finally walks out of the supermarket and realizes all they are missing from life is five boxes of Thin Mints. Emma makes sure to poke Dee in her ribs after the lady finishes paying because Thin Mints are the best and Dee foolishly chose Do-si-dos in what she was pretty sure Dad would call a sucker's bet.

They manage to sell another twenty-three boxes before Mr. Chang lets them pack the booth away early because it really was too hot, considering how early in the year it was. He drops Dee off at home but Emma is spending the night, and she and Amy make convincing enough faces that Mr. Chang groans and picks up a pizza on the way back, extra pepperonis on one half because he knows Emma loves them. They get in their pajamas (Emma has blue pants and a white shirt with bunnies all over and Amy has a pink nightgown with orange swirls) and Mr. Chang lets them eat the pizza during their first movie. By the time the credits are rolling Mr. Chang has fallen asleep in his chair and Amy pushes his shoulder to wake him so he'll go to bed.

"I'm waking you up at the crack of dawn so you better go to sleep soon," he threatens, before kissing both of their foreheads and going to his bedroom down the hall, but Emma and Amy have been trying to stay awake all night for the last _four_ sleepovers and this time they think they can. 

They make it to 2am and hide under the pillow fort they made last night when Mr. Chang tells them to get up, or at least try to until Mr. Chang grabs them by the ankles to pull them out for breakfast. He makes them Mickey Mouse pancakes ("Because that's the only shape he can make," Amy tells her solemnly, which is broken when Mr. Chang abandons the current pancakes to tickle her into giggling apologies for smearing his good name with lies) and Emma manages to eat one whole one and two extra ears. Amy and Emma spend the rest of the morning playing Dinosaur School until Mr. Chang finally bundles them into the car for Emma to go home.

Dad's car is in the driveway and Emma bounces slightly because last she knew he wasn't even going to show up on Sunday for their weekend because work was really busy this month. She makes sure to thank Mr. Chang like Mom taught her and hugs Amy good-bye. She uses the house key she was given when she turned five - this year with a huge butterfly keychain - and waves to Mr. Chang to let him know he could drive off. (There's a glint or something from the sun and it hurts her eyes for a second.)

The house is silent, which is almost a relief because whenever Dad picks her up for their weekends and has to come inside Mom and him usually get into a fight. She drops her backpack by the front door even though Mom is going to make her put it away before she lets her go anywhere with Dad, and heads to the kitchen to get a glass of juice. She drinks half of it before the silence gets too weird (and the way Dad can decide she can't get a dog even if he doesn't live here anymore is just _unfair_ ) and heads to Mom's office. She knocks on the door, waits five seconds before poking her head through because she can't hear anything.

"Mom?"

There's no one in the office and she makes sure to shut the door completely behind her. She checks outside even though she doesn't hear anything (sometimes Dad still mows the lawn even though Mom pays a company to do it), checks the dining room and then the kitchen again.

"Mom?" she calls. She grabs her backpack by the front door and heads up the stairs. "Dad?"  

She drops the bag at the top of the stairs, calls out again, "Mom? Dad?" Her voice sounds strange as she heads down the hallway to the master bedroom, where the door isn't completely closed, but the lights are off. "Mom?" and her voice cracks slightly on the last word. "Mom?" she says, and pushes the door gently.

Three months ago, Emma and Theresa stole one of her older brother's rated R movies and watched it on her older sister's portable DVD player. It looked everything and nothing like this.

"Mommy?"

She screams, or sobs, or _something_ , and her hands are red and she keeps patting what's left of her mom's face and -

There's suddenly a hand on her throat pushing her against the wall. Her body dangles, her sneakers lighting up as she kicks them behind her. Her hands are clutching at his hand; she can't breathe and she can hear herself choke, claws at the arm closest to her with her tiny fingernails.

Her dad leans close, eyes gleaming like a starless night. "Oh," he says, and his teeth flash, "this is gonna be fun."

 

~

Emma rolls over as much as the ropes will allow, retches into the ground. "What the fuck was that?" Her face is wet with tears and her throat is raw. "What-"

~

 

Seven months in, she arrives at the makeshift daycare/school/wayward children cabin and no one else is there. It causes her to pinwheel back slightly, because someone is always there, Emma and Maria and Kelli have the schedule perfected by now, and two of the kids don't have anyone to claim them so they're almost always there. Jolene and Peter definitely have shifts this morning, and Briggs usually gets food before he picks up his kid Tommy when he gets off, and seriously where the fuck are Jenna and KT and why isn't Kelli watching them?

She searches the cabin quickly, just in case (hide and seek is the real evil), and her stomach is really starting to twist in worry. It's not Croats, those fuckers don't know how to sneak in and out of places without setting off half a dozen camp alarms, but there's some guys walking around with guns she wouldn't want to be caught alone with, and she has superior strength and her own weapons on her side. (Some guys who aren't just soldiers, and they're even scarier.)

She runs to Dean's command cabin, and seriously where the fuck is everybody this morning? The majority of people should still be in the Mess at this time, but there's usually more people moving around, coming off shift or enjoying their free period.

When she reaches Dean's cabin and finds it empty she has to swallow back bile. _There were people this morning_ , everybody didn't just disappear, she isn't _alone_ , and she runs to the Mess, almost tripping ( _flash of light_ ) when she hears the noise that means everybody's gathered for a meeting in the only place that will hold them all at one time. She clutches her side and tries to stop panting, calm the way her body feels filled with adrenaline. She wipes her face with her shirt and fixes her ponytail, would rather look like she forgot (she did forget) the meeting and woke up late than have to tell Dean for a second she thought she'd been abandoned here, the only one left behind in this facsimile of home they were building.

When she gets the door open it groans under its own weight and every head swivels to look at her. She can feel herself flushing under the scrutiny, knows she can do well enough on an one-and-one basis but large crowds still worry her, make her feel embarrassed and small and fake.   

She gives a feeble wave but most people just look mad, or disgusted, or worried, and she's still flushing because she seriously does not remember being told about a meeting or what has everybody freaking out, and she knows she's supposed to know. It's not that they advertise the fact, but people know she's Dean's daughter and because of that is held to a higher standard, is supposed to know what's happening even though Dean talks to her as much as anyone else.

"Sorry," she mouths, reflex, and then she catches Dean's eyes and frown and he points to the stage area he's on. As she passes people she sees them start to whisper and there's this voice in her head, Lydia's voice, telling her to run, but run where? There's humans in here and Croats out there and Emma knows exactly where on the hierarchy she stands.

"Dad," she murmurs when she reaches Dean, even though she doesn't say that word often, mostly because it stopped working on Dean even before the world fell just a little further apart, but she needs something, needs - Dean just stands there, looking at her like she's a stranger, and when she finally faces the crowd she has to stand in parade rest, clutching her hands behind her back to keep from grabbing her dagger. She knows _exactly_ how unhelpful a knife is to a gunfight, and that's what they carry, guns.

"Let's make this quick because we all have shit to do," Dean says. "Yes, she's not completely human, no, you don't need more information than that. You don't want her watching the kids, that's fine, she'll be good on the front lines. Anybody got an issue you keep it to yourself or get out. Now, we're switching some people around so lists go up tonight, make sure you get your new assignments. Dismissed."

Emma is frozen solid and the crowd moves slow enough Dean repeats, "Dismissed," louder this time, and Emma is still, _don't let them see you shake_ , and Dean throws a glance at her, says, "I'll be at your cabin in an hour, stay out of sight till then."

She nods, orders moving her to action, and slips through the side door before the crowd can really disperse, makes it to the back of her cabin before throwing up. She crouches there for a while, head in her hands and trying to stop the worrying thump of her heartbeat pounding at her temples. Finally she wipes her face with her shirt again, presses a hand against her mouth as she enters and finds Kelli packing her stuff up.

Kelli's face twists, and she passes a glance to Maria, whose doing a shitty job pretending to read a book. Kelli shakes her head, straightens. "Look, I'm just not, Jane's cabin has an empty bunk and I'd just rather not be here, ok. No offense."

She wants to laugh but says nothing, just watches as Kelli finishes packing and leaves without another word. They have a good set-up, reward for being the camp kid wranglers, a regular sized cabin with just their three beds, and one of them always rotating out to be with Jenna and KT. Kelli was a baby-sitter and Maria wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and Dean hadn't wanted her to be a soldier when they first got here so he lied and said she had experience too and no one actually questioned him on it. She found she was good at it, even if she didn't love it, and she's tearing at the skin of her hands the longer the silence goes on. She should be the one to move, Jane's cabin is for soldiers, but she's not in denial, knows that's a death sentence even quicker than Dean confirming whatever rumor somehow got spread around instead of squashing it like he does all conversations he doesn't like.

"So you don't mind being here alone, with me?" she finally asks, looking at the wall above Maria's bed.

She catches the shadow of movement as Maria shrugs over-casually. "I don't like it, but you haven't done anything so far, and I don't think you will."

Emma nods, the thanks she shouldn't have to say burning in her throat. "Where's Jenna and KT?"

Maria finally looks up, and she hasn't seen this expression much (directed at her or in general), but she thinks its pity. "Jackie took them to the gardens. Emma," she begins, almost hesitantly but voice sure, "You can't hang out with them anymore. People'll flip out if they see you around the kids. I'll explain it to them, so they know not to go near you, but you can't...you just can't anymore, okay?"

Emma looks away, blinking hard until Maria leaves, maybe to find Kelli to figure out the new shift schedule. She blinks and blinks and blinks until finally she hears her own voice answering the hard knock on the door.

"Come in."

Dean looks at her when he walks in, shrugs softly. "Sorry kid, but I need this camp running, and I can always use more fighters on the front lines. You won't have to hide and pretend to be human if you get into it with a Croat, and I know you can take them."

He says other stuff, about how quickly the rumor spread, about how he had to, about how this will be good, and she nods and hmms agreement when he needs it and doesn't say anything because he's the only one whose not going to be gunning for her now.

He's right, it turns out. Kind of. She has innate skills and by this point an amazing control over her body, and she goes on one mission, two, three. He puts her in the group with the most sympathetic, which means least likely to shoot her instead of a Croat, and when she saves Jay's life something in the group relaxes, just enough that it doesn't feel like balancing on a knife's edge anymore. She avoids more people, respects the invisible 100 foot boundary between the kids and her, feels like she has to win Maria's friendship all over again, but she's not dead and at this point she's taking it as a win.

The group's sent to raid a town about two hours away on the bicycles they found just as the gas started to dry up. Layla runs point and Jay actually smiles at her when she passes him the extra rifle. They play hopscotch, send two people out to clear the way, and Emma feels good when she's one of the ones picked. (It may be a more dangerous job, but it also means they trust her.) The town is mostly empty, already picked apart by humans and Croats, and Emma and Paula make it back to where the rest wait for their reports without having to shoot their guns and attract attention.

Layla pinches her nose. "Ok, we're going back. Risa's group had a run of the town west of here last week and reported it empty. I don't want us out here any longer than we need to be. Dr. Robbins is just going to have to make due."

Greg and Yearly are sent out to lead the way. Emma thinks she sees something ( _flash of_ ), and then Greg is screaming and the Croats are on them. There's seventeen, and the team spreads out as best they can. Emma manages to shoot one before three more are advancing on her. She gets another shot off before one jumps her, and she rolls with it, flips it off and comes up with her dagger. She stabs it through the chest, dodges the hands of the other and stabs it too. She sprints to where Jay is doing his best to keep one off him and throws it off, bends over and stabs it in the heart. Jay scrabbles up and is shooting the one coming up behind her, and they pause, trying to find out where the next threat is.

The rest are already dead, and Emma walks back to grab her gun where it fell. Layla's shirt looks like it's been dunked in red sauce and Yearly is swearing softly. Greg is dead, first killed, and so is Paula. Layla shakes her head when they gather to check wounds.

"We're close enough to camp, we can be contained there, but we need to get back to safety now. Anybody have anything that needs to be looked at immediately?" She waits for all of them to say no. "Let's go then." 

Emma's given one of the extra bikes ( _Paula_ ) and she concentrates on that, trying to ride with one hand and hold on to it with the other. Take the bikes and leave the bodies, that's protocol, it's practical. She sees the open cut on her arm and ignores it. 

The perimeter lets them in, though they keep guns on them. Dean and Dr. Robbins come out at the bell signal and they start to get checked over, even though Jay is already twitching. Layla's the one to put the bullet in his brain, and Dean nods in approval, has some of the others remove him.

"You're sure you weren't affected?" Dr. Robbins asks, holding Emma's cut arm up.

She swallows, because _she doesn't know_ , has been trying not to think about it the whole ride back. "No," she says, because she'd be showing symptoms by now.

Dr. Robbins makes a little mmm-hmmm noise and glances at Dean. "I always said she might not be able to get infected, like the vampires can't. It's very doubtful Croat blood didn't get on her."

Dean watches her, face blank. "I remember."

They stand still for a long moment, looking at each other, the sound of Jay's body hitting the dirt still ringing in her mind, until Dean turns away, calling over his shoulder, "Emma, let him take some samples before you go to the Mess."

Dr. Robbins smiles.

 

~

Emma's crying, feels like she has been forever. "Stop, please, please, that didn't happen, why are yo-"

~

 

 

Sam has a gun pointed directly at her and she feels another one of those too real flashes of fear Amazons should not feel; she has only the briefest of moments to send a thought to what happened to Charlene, but she can see Sam's face and _knows_ , the way it twitches when her eyes went automatically red like they do when she sees a threat.

"Please don't let him hurt me," she tells Dean, and she means it, means every word, has meant most of what she's told him tonight.

She sees his face flicker with indecision, knows if she tries to call him Dad or anything else that worked before Sam will shoot her, but knows she needs _something_. "Please, I don't-"

"Sam," he says into the tension, and starts moving to her, "Sam don't."

"Please," she says, because she can feel him behind her, the thick menace with a gun in his hand, "Please don't let him -"

And she looks sixteen, she _is_ sixteen, according to the human world, and she's still a child according to Amazonian law (will always be a child, if she can't finish her initiation), and she is going to die.

"Dad, please -"

She hears the gun shot, once twice three times, and then she _feels_ it, and Dean is pushing her down, hands cupping her lower stomach. She coughs, eyes wide, as Dean's hands push into two of the wounds. It hurts, _it hurts, it hurts_ , and suddenly she realizes she's saying it out loud, and Dean is going "I know, I know, I'm sorry, I know." 

He makes a helpless face at Sam, "Help me," and Sam doesn't move for a long time and Emma is bleeding to death, her hands clutched uselessly at where Dean is pressing down on to her stomach. She's dropped her dagger and wants to grab it, he's right _here_ , she can still finish this, but it hurts it hurts and she can't even feel her body enough to feel the way the blood is puddling under her.

"We can't take her to a hospital, she's not human," Sam says, and Dean says, "I know, fuck, I know, but this is-"

"Please," she says, "please please please they'll know how to - they can help please take me -"

"We can't," Dean says, and Sam looks regretful, maybe, and she's sobbing, and this, this is the biggest truth she's said all night, "Please, please help me, I don't wanna die."

"I'm sorry," Dean keeps repeating, hands loosening from her wounds, "I'm sorry."

She's shaking; her mouth tastes like blood, and she's crying, and Dean's hands move away from her wounds and she tries pushing them herself but she can't move her hands properly, doesn't have the strength.

"I'm sorry," he says, and clutches her fingers to pull them away, "I'm sorry."

~

"Is that better than, being more realistic?" the djinn asks.

~

 

They move towns again, and Emma and the four others from her initiation share one large room in the house with Charlene and Adrianna. Emma was the last one to complete her initiation, almost didn't make it, and because of that she's considered the runt of the group. Mostly, that means she gets the worst mattress and the smallest drawers; it's not so bad.

The plan is to stay two years to give them a chance to graduate high school on their fake records and practice blending in before they leave the tribe for their _sabbatikos_ , and Emma is exhausted after a day of moving boxes and cleaning the new space. She sinks deeper into her pillow, feels herself start to drift off.

The dream snaps into place, startling in a way she shouldn't feel when she's asleep. (Shouldn't notice, because she's _asleep_.) It's a motel room, the walls an ugly yellow-green that feels familiar, the white cabinets dirty in a way Charlene would never approve. She's in jeans and boots like usual, but her shirt is some pink plaid thing she wouldn't be caught dead in in a million years. When she checks the door and windows don't budge, the room is empty, and she doesn't quite know what to do with herself because it should be a dream but it doesn't feel that way.

"Hello?" she tries, and suddenly there's a woman there, brown hair in a bun and soft grey suit. She sits on one of the double beds, gestures for Emma to sit on the other.

"Uh," Emma tries.

The woman smiles. She doesn't look anything like Charlene but Emma is reminded of her, the way she had to nudge Emma into taking the piece of flesh.

"We are very excited about you," she says. "You come from a very important bloodline."

Emma wants to say something sarcastic, or demand to know who she is, but she wonders if this is a test they didn't tell them about and swallows it down. "I know." She makes sure to keep her back straight as she sits on the other bed. "I'm very proud to be an Androktones of the Molpadia line." 

The woman's face twists slightly before it smooths out. "Yes. But I was referring to your other bloodline."

It takes her a minute, and then she realizes when she last saw the motel wallpaper. "You mean Dean?"

"Yes."

"But he's..." Emma trails off, not sure how to finish the sentence.

The woman lifts an eyebrow. "Dead?" Emma nods, and the woman leans over slightly. "Yes, but he's already proved to be useless. It's his legacy I'm speaking to you about."

Emma wants to lean back but doesn't. Curiosity about your father beyond what is needed to make the kill is frowned upon, and she's not sure how interested she's supposed to look. "Hunting?" she guesses, because that's all she really knows about him, and why Charlene was sent to kill his brother.

"No," the woman says, sounding almost amused. "I'm talking about his legacy, his bloodline, who he really was. Did you know you have a brother, Emma?"

Emma's fingers want to twitch but she doesn't let them, keeps her hands still in her lap. "And you want me to kill him?" she offers, trying not to sound confused.

The woman smiles, and Emma suddenly realizes how very pretty she looks when she's happy. "Yes. That's exactly what we want you to do."

A pillow slams into her head and she jolts awake. She fumbles with her phone to see what time it is, has to blink when ( _flash of light_ ) she has trouble seeing the time. She rubs a hand on her head, though the pillow didn't actually hurt. "What'd you do that for, Katie?"

"Come on Emma, Charlene's calling us, time to get up."

 

~

"Do you know how long I can make this last?"

  
 


End file.
